John E. Pease / World War II

The Connecticut Veterans History Project, an online archive at Central Connecticut State University, includes video interviews with 190 Connecticut veterans who served in U.S. conflicts including World War II, Korea, Vietnam, the Persian Gulf, Afghanistan and Iraq.

The CCSU Center for Public Policy and Research in New Britain is one of many archive partners nationwide in the Veterans History Project, created in 2000 when Congress voted to preserve the oral histories of U.S. veterans within wartime service and civilians who supported their efforts.

John E. Pease, 86, of East Windsor, was a Marine who survived one of the bloodiest engagements in the South Pacific — the 1943 Battle of Tarawa in which 5,600 men perished, according to an article written by Eileen Hurst for the Connecticut History journal.

Pease, who participated in the attack on the island of Betio, was one of those forced to jump from boats and wade to the beaches — past the bodies of U.S. and Japanese soldiers — when landing craft could not reach the shore. He was lucky to reach the beach. Half of the 990 Marines killed on Betio died in the water, according to Hurst's article.

Once the battle was over, survivors had to cope with the carnage — and the flies drawn to corpses. He told interviewer Hurst of trying to scoop a meal from a ration can he had opened with his knife.

"There was a thousand flies that flew in there on my food. I had to hold my can with one hand and eat with the other hand, and by the time I'd push the flies out and get [my hand] back there, those flies were back in. ... There was, I'd say, probably an inch, an inch and a half of flies.

"So what I did, I was so hungry, I just put that knife into it and I ate the flies and all. … I said 'The hell with it.'... I had to eat. ...

"There was 5,000 dead people on that island, so there was a lot of flies."

To view full video interviews with veterans providing oral histories to the CCSU Veterans History Project, go to www.ccsu.edu/vhp.

If you are a veteran interested in sharing your story, or would like to volunteer to conduct interviews, contact project director Eileen Hurst at 860-832-2796 or hursteim@ccsu.edu.